


Mini ninjas

by Inuhirnoess777



Category: Naruto
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Somebody Lives/Not Everyone Dies, Time Travel
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-12
Updated: 2021-01-12
Packaged: 2021-03-17 05:20:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 16,298
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28719525
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Inuhirnoess777/pseuds/Inuhirnoess777
Summary: Naruto has defeated Kaguya the Rabbit Goddess but afterwards he as the rest of the rookie twelve plus, Team konohamaru, and sand trio decide that the loss was too great. the decide to use a risky time travel fuinjutsu to fix it. originaly on Fanfiction.net
Relationships: Dai-nana-han | Team Seven & Gai-han | Team Gai (Naruto), Haruno Sakura/Rock Lee, Rookie Nine & Suna no Sankyoudai | Sand Siblings
Comments: 2
Kudos: 17





	1. Chapter 1

I do not own anything about Naruto.

Prologue

Naruto looked out onto the ruins that where once the village hidden in the leaves... Konoha. His mind felt fuzzy, as he stared down at the sorry remains of society and forestry. It was as if he were dreaming, or perhaps, looking through a veil; his mind seemed adamant to refuse this sad reality as his own. He was currently standing on top of the Hokage's monument. The first and second Hokage's faces were gone completely, along with most of the rock wall that supported them; the fourths face was destroyed personally by Madara after Obito came to his senses. Tsunade's head fell almost instantly after her death and was mostly intact on the ground having crushed several dozens of the white Zetsu beneath it when it fell. Tsunade would have enjoyed the that.Though not until after they had taken down Sai as well.

The thirds face was the only one that stayed intact during the war against Madara. The only visible damage was the crack down his face which had occurred sometime before Naruto's first Chunnin exam finals. The Single face still looked as impassive as it had always been, he once feared the face would look lonely now. The thought that he didn't comforted Naruto, the third looked strong as ever to him. He smiled, the old man may have been the least fierce of the five; but he was always there even when the others couldn't be.

The buildings that they had rebuilt after Pein's' attack were nothing but rubble; Most of their previous inhabitants were dead. There were only a few dozen civilian survivors as there had been too many attacks for the ninja that were left to protect them. Gaara was somewhere to his right speaking with some of his ninja. After one of the worse attacks on Suna, Gaara had moved many of his civilians to Konoha. Now he was arranging for a more permanent solution as Suna as it was having been destroyed.

Naruto shifted his attention to Sasuke who stood off to the side; Sasuke had never thought it would turn out like this. Sasuke had seen what Madara was doing, he had understood the insanity of getting revenge on those born generations after your supposed betrayal. In the war he had returned to Konoha's side but in return Madara had almost completely blinded him and made his once prized eyes almost completely useless. Though he was still as expected, a valuable ally; thanks to Sakura he could still see bursts of chakra, and shades of colors which helped greatly.

Oh, Sakura she had changed so much but unfortunately not just in skill as the war progressed Madara had taken it as a personal offence that she healed so many of the almost fatal wounds that he seemed to enjoy inflicting. In one surprise attack he had personally infiltrated her tent and using some sort of corrosive acid jutsu had severely injured her they had managed to save her at least, but she would always be emotionally and physically scarred.

Though the right side of her face was completely normal in the left side of her face her once sea-foam green eye was clouded and the skin from there to her chin all the way to her ear was misshapen and looked as if someone had pulled it back. They had done so to stop her from losing her skin altogether, which luckily worked. Further down her arm was a mess of scar tissue from her shoulder to her mid elbow, as well as some on her wrist.

Lower though it was worse not very visible damage mind you but under the scarred hips and thigh was the lowest blow. Sakura had always wanted kids, and she would have been a great mom; but now it would never happen, she was sterile. If you asked lee though she was still just as beautiful as she had always been. In turn if you asked Sakura she would say that at least she had lee. (Who could sometime be worse than a five-year-old on a sugar high.)

Still as loud as he ever was Lee was also changed, the death of Gai sensei at Kaguya's hands. Sakura's injuries and Tenten falling into a coma, 1 month earlier had made him slightly more subdued; and though he didn't lose the spandex, he had changed the colors at least. The green was replaced a navy blue and the orange was switched for dull red to match his headband that he still wore around his waist belt style. Lee admitted it was partially for mourning, the rest was because it was better for stealth.

Naruto turned around and in separate group were the second generation Ino Shika Cho trio. Shikamaru looked even more like his father with a scar or two of his own now adorning his face. Still had his mom's legs though, one of Naruto's lips twitched with that thought. Shikamaru frowned a bit and glanced at him, as if reading his thoughts; this brought o small one-sided smile to Naruto's face. Ino was messing with her hair she had become a bit sadistic during the war and it reminded him a lot of Anko Mitsurashi. Choji was eating some homemade potato chips 'go figure'. Out of all of them, Choji was probably the least changed both physically and mentally.

A movement closer to the trees brought his attention to the yet unmentioned member of team ten Neji Hyuuga; his was standing guard in case anyone tried to sneak up on them. The most surprising change during the war was probably his fighting style. Neji had unexpectedly started using a double-bladed scythe, apparently, he was able to master it in only a few months which was practically unheard of; but if you watched him in battle you had to admit it was practically made for him. Though he still preferred gentle fist, his hands could only reach so far,

Naruto turned around ' maybe I should check on Tenten and see if she is any closer to coming around' internally he doubted it thus far since Tenten had fallen into the coma there had been absolutely no improvement. It was all they could do to keep her from deteriorating further than the state she was in now. Naruto pushed his pessimistic thoughts aside as he entered the medical tent.

It was Hinata's turn on duty today as Sakura's was yesterday and Ino was busy rebuilding. Hinata's smiled at him "have you come to check on Tenten Naruto-kun." Naruto nodded a bit sheepishly, she sighed unfortunately there had been no change. He nodded. Hinata had grown a lot during the war she wasn't exactly different but somewhere she had decided that she was done hiding and had let her more confident and determined side come out.

She still liked him he knew but she seemed to understand that he just couldn't. Sure, he loved her in a way (possibly and likely romantically), but for now it could be nothing more than close friends, too much had been lost and he had to make sure that the people precious to him were safe before he could even think of starting something. Finding a new subject, he asked "how is Shino's arm", Hinata's returned her attention to him. "He is able to feel light sensations but unfortunately her still cannot move it. I am afraid it is permanently paralyzed." Naruto looked down" "that's what I was afraid of."

The curtain behind them was pulled open, and they glanced back. The newcomers spoke up. "Hey Naruto, Hinata, what's up?" "Arf Arf bark." Naruto couldn't resist a smile "nothing much Kiba; You?" Kiba replied in the same light tone "not much just working." They exchanged a few more pleasantries before Naruto decided he should be going.

Naruto stepped out and let Kiba and his teammate talk in peace while he continued walking through the camp. Kiba though still loud he wasn't nearly as brash as he used to be, the partial paralysis of Shino; plus a few near-death experiences of his own had made him realize that he can't rush in head first all the time. He also became a fearless fighter and didn't care who he was up against he still tried his hardest to beat them and it worked too. (Naruto still has the rushing in head first thing after all)

Naruto turned the corner and almost ran into Konohamaru as he was walking by. "Oh, hey boss anything I can do for you?" Naruto paused "sure can you gather up the rookie 9 teams, team 10 bar Tenten, the head Suna trio, and have them and yourself meet me at training ground 7 in about three hours." Konohamaru paused not having expected any answer besides "No just keep rebuilding." Naruto watched as Konohamaru ran off to follow his orders. 'I hope this works.' Naruto stared after where the chunnin went for a few second as the shunshin'ed to the training grounds.

Naruto arrived at the training ground and unsealed a few brushes and a large bottle of ink from his scrolls. He started to unclutter the clearing of grass with a few grand fireball techniques. He then settled down to start the seals. After sage training he had decided that since not only was Jiraiya a seal master but his family on his mom's side was also well-known for seal making or fuinjutsu; he might as well take it up himself, and for someone who did better with abstract thinking and not common sense fuinjutsu was rather straightforward.

By the time the seal array was almost finished the people he had called for the meeting were starting to arrive. About five minutes later he was done and Hinata and Shino stepped into the clearing. 'Well now is a good of time as any' Naruto thought. "We have lost too many during the war." He paused as he looked at the other reactions. Many looked sad and regretful, after all many of them had lost friends, or even siblings; everyone had lost at least one teacher.

He continued. "I have discovered a way to fix this, but it only has a 50% percent chance of working." Naruto pointed to the seal array. "This seal array behind me is partly based on the hirashin jutsu designed by the fourth Hokage; which is a form of space time alteration. It also has component of a memory and a chakra transfer jutsu. Using this we should be able to transport our minds into the past where theoretically we would meld in with our past selves absorbing themselves and their memories to help blend in. We will unfortunately not be able to access our chakra reserves in the beginning unless we arrive at a time where we have already unlocked it. If we haven't yet unlocked it our current chakra, it will be suppressed and slowly grow; we will have our full chakra by five years or so."

Naruto looked up again, they were shocked; any questions about this technique? Surprisingly it was Shikamaru who spoke first, we know you probably can't do it on your own if you asked us here and I know it's troublesome but I'm sure you already ironed out the problems. With your insane amount of luck, I'm sure the 50% chance of survival is nothing to worry about; where do I start?" (And what more could they possibly lose?) The rest seemed surmised too, but they nodded in agreement. "I have faith in you Naruto-kun." Spoke Hinata. "Your flames of youth shine through the darkest of night's Hokage-sama" shouted Lee. "Go boss."

The shouting started to get out of hand; Naruto raised his hands to try to calm them. After it became quiet Naruto spoke again. "I'm glad I have you guys here with me, but I still have some warnings, first besides the danger there is a small window that time I know will likely arrive. The jutsu only goes back as far as our existence so most of us will be at least three hopefully around twelve. I have no way to be sure when we will arrive."

'I need one of you to bring Tenten here though because we certainly can't leave her, behind can we?" "No, we cannot it would be truly unyouthful for us to abandon our friend in her time of weakness." shouted lee. "I will fetch her for you." Before anybody could respond he was gone. Naruto shook himself out of his youth induced stupor. "Ok now that that's handled the rest of you please stand on of the fourteen points of the seal."

They all nodded and got into position. "When Lee gets back he and Tenten, and moegi will be situated in the middle of the seal since neither of them can mold chakra they will be taken with us as passengers." If we arrive during our gennin days, we will meet at the team seven training grounds if we arrive at the academy time we will meet there any younger and we will meet at the park we used as kids.

After Lee got back and he, Akamaru and Tenten were directed to sit/lay in the center Naruto gave the signal to start. Everyone on the edge of the circle stated pouring their chakra into the ground, slowly the seals started to light up and spread toward the center. After it reached the center of the circle the glow slowly became brighter until soon they couldn't see anything.

Then suddenly Naruto felt some type of jerk as if something was trying to yank his stomach out of him, and it felt about as painful. He continued pouring in chakra soon he felt another jerk, this one was a lot stronger and wasn't giving up; he gritted his teeth. One more jerk and suddenly he was no longer on the ground instead he was hurtling… somewhere.

He was only aware his comrades joining him and in incredible painful sensation of feeling like he swallowed a knife which was now spinning out of control. Realized someone was also falling a few feet under him. He sniffed the air since there was no light available, but there was no air to smell with; he couldn't breathe. Naruto then felt as if they were approaching something and they were coming up on it fast. He gasped at this speed it might kill them before he could warn his comrades they hit. He felt as if his entire skeleton was shattered he was aware of a sensation not unlike water washing over him as he fell into unconsciousness.

-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-

Naruto's body felt sluggish and his eyelids felt heavy, "ooohhhh I feel sick" he sat up and opened his eyes. "What the hell, I'm in the orphanage this thing burnt down years ago." Suddenly his memories rushed back to him, 'it… worked…' his eye widened. "Yatta, Sugio, battebayo, and Awesome it totally worked." He stopped and looked at his hands, the appendages were unmarked, soft, stubby, and above all tiny. 'uh oh how far back are we exactly?" He ran into the bathroom and tried to look in the mirror; key word is tried, 'I can't even reach the sink.' He saw a stool and pulled it closer to the sink and climbed up. As he stood he couldn't stop his jaw from dropping.

"I'm a toddler I probably haven't even reached 3 years old yet." (Naruto is the youngest in his graduating class) Naruto heard someone coming down the hall. 'Wonder who that could be?' the door swung open and there was an old woman with graying hair and only three visible teeth were there, she cringed at him; oh yeah, I forgot the whole hate the Kyuubi brat thing oh well. "Brat what are you doing outside your room, Naruto pretended to look confused, the old woman grabbed his arm and started hauling him towards one of the back rooms; not to roughly mind you or the old man Hokage would find out, but still didn't mean she had to be nice.

Naruto continued playing the innocent little kid, but internally he groaned; I guess I'll have to save them all over again to earn their trust. 'This is so not going to be easy. At least we have a lot of time to prepare and being this young we can change even more events. I almost forgot Hinata's kidnapping, that must be changed Neji deserves a little more time to know his dad. Boy we sure got our work cut out for us, this is so troublesome.

Shikamaru sneezed himself awake, 'why do I feel like Naruto just stole my catchphrase?' He sighed and sat up, it was around 7:00 in the morning he guessed he had absorbed his earlier memories and remembered this is usually when his mom dragged him out of bed. Sure, enough she stepped into his room. "Oh, Shikamaru I heard you sneeze." She placed a hand on his forehead. "Are you catching a cold?" Yoshino placed a hand on Shikamaru's head. "Hmm you don't seem to have a fever so it's probably nothing." She picked him up and carried him to the kitchen. 'oh, great I have a booster seat, don't I?' thought Shikamaru, and sure enough on the side of the table lay a chair with a bright neon blue booster seat and a bowl of Cheerios. He sighed 'troublesome.'

Ino Yamanaka jumped up and looked around. 'Yes, it worked I'm little again now I can wear all those adorable outfits made just for kids, just sit back relax and let my parents spoil me.' Ino twirled around, but first I should probably get dressed; after all I can't run around in my pjs can I?' Ino quickly threw on a purple shirt and a pair of black shorts. She ran out of her room and headed to her parent's room. Before she could open the door though she heard… giggling? She leaned closer. 'Oh, dear kami I forgot how into each other my parent where before they died.' She backed away from the door and went to make herself some cereal.

Neji heard birds chirping outside his window he looked out at them and felt oddly free. He reached up to brush his seal, but instead he felt… nothing. 'What where is the seal it disappeared? No' he thought again and took in his surroundings. 'It was never there, I haven't gotten it yet Hinata's birthday isn't for another three months and that's her fourth birthday. I don't get branded for another two years right before dad died…" DAD!"

'Neji ran down the hall and into the neighboring room. Hizashi Hyuga sat up at the noise. 'What's wrong Neji is everything okay?' Neji was silent for a few seconds and smiled "sorry dad I just had a nightmare I'm okay now." Hizashi nodded "do you want to sleep in here?" Neji shook his head "no thanks I'm fine now that I know you're okay." Hizashi nodded and got up" it's about time for breakfast anyway, come on Neji. Neji nodded and followed his father.

Elsewhere in the Konoha orphanage there was a little boy getting ready to wake up. He literally bounced out of bed. "Yosh Naruto-kun's flames of youth burn as bright as the sun for he has indeed brought indeed." The young boy, ran to the bathroom only to freeze and stare, it was an impressive feat to render him speechless. This boy was of course Rock Lee but at this time, he lacked the trademark green spandex and would hopefully stick to navy and red. But now he had his still braided hair in his plain white obi.

Sakura sat up and stretched 'oi that jutsu sure hurt like hell.' She looked around she seemed to be in her old room and it wasn't yet cluttered with girly magazine like teen ninja and some fashion magazine. 'Well this is definitely before I became a gennin but how long before?' she went over to her dresser and looked in the mirror. For a few seconds she just stood there, until one phrase escaped her lips. "Holy $#%$."

Gaara shook himself, due to Shukkaku he never really slept but he did sometimes meditate when he was older now he couldn't do either. He looked through his child self's memories. He didn't have his tattoo currently. He didn't get that until he killed his uncle at six. In fact, at this time his father had yet to set any assassins after him. He sighed and decided to go to his brothers and sisters room; which took a while because, they live in a separate wing.

Temari and Kankouro were indeed up, Temari had jumped up on the bed and spoke up. "Well that hurt like hell, but it seems the short little blond bastard actually did it. I'm six now and Kankouro is almost five." She chuckled "that leaves little Gaara at a whopping three years old. Gaara ignored her while Kankouro was grumbling about rebuilding his puppets. Gaara was busy trying to repress Shukkaku as his demon was going into a complete mental breakdown now that he realized Gaara was suddenly too smart and mature for him to control. "Troublesome."

Shino woke up as the sun's rays shone through his window, remaining silent Shino slipped out of bed and got dressed. He paused only a moment when he found his left arm working right along with his right. He finished dressing put on his glasses and headed to the kitchen for breakfast. The entire time the young boy remained completely silent.

Kiba woke up and looked around. 'He did it; the dead last actually did it.' He got up and walked to his parent's room his dad was still around at this time. Not that he really cared he abandoned them and wasn't worth being upset about. He closed the door and walked to his sister's room he looked in she was safe too, he sighed and went back to his room. Life at the Inuzuka household started late. Good thing too because, he felt exhausted.

Tenten shot up what where am I? I remember me and lee fighting off some of Kabuto's sound ninjas but then nothing. She looked around holy #$%! %^& #$%# $%$ %&$& I'm three again. Did I travel back in time? Whoa I got to stay calm this is probably just a dream I guess I'll just go with it. It's not like I have anything better to do. I just hope the others are okay. The rest of the day for the young girl continued as normal as could be when she went to the cafeteria a saw a black-haired boy giving her some thumbs up. Who is… Tenten cut herself off as she saw his face and more specifically his eyebrows. Oh Lee.

Hinata woke up slowly, she sat up and looked around; she saw her bedroom and smiled. "I knew you could do it Naruto-kun." She heard her mother stepping into Hinata's room. "Hinat… oh you're already awake." Hinata smiled "Hai mother and I'm guessing it's time for breakfast." Her mother nodded and stepped out. Hinata looked after her before getting dressed. "Mom it's been so long I can't believe your still here." Her mom had died shortly after her sisters second birthday quite suddenly. They still weren't sure what exactly happened to her though. They had discovered her in the garden.

Sasuke opened his eyes partially expecting more darkness but to his shock he could see. He laid there simply staring for what seemed forever. He heard footsteps outside his door. He got up and opened it, he looked down the hall. He almost gaped in surprise. "Mom!" she stopped and looked back at him "hmm what is it Sasuke do you need something." Realizing he had spoken out loud he shook his head. "No thanks mom I'm fine." Almost as an afterthought he asked "where's Itachi?" she paused and frowned. "I'm not sure I think he is still completing d-ranks with his sensei.

Sasuke was surprised. 'He's still a gennin.' Then again, he is only about seven now so that understandable. "When will he be back?" his mom frowned. "I'm not sure he usually plays with Shisui after missions." Sasuke nodded. "Itachi you're not going to be alone this time I'll make sure of it." He heard his mom giggle. "Oh, Sasuke I think it's so adorable when you make that face." Sasuke twitched. 'Cute… cute.' Sasuke seethed. 'I'm an s ranked ex missing Nin, I am not cute.' Somehow when his mom saw his clearly outraged face she couldn't resist laughing harder. 'When I see Naruto, I'm going to kick his ass.'

Choji groaned and rolled around and sat up. For a few minutes he just sat there letting his eyes adjust to the light. He didn't even react when his mom came in and picked him up to carry him into the kitchen, cooing gently. The tired toddler didn't react when she and his dad sat down and left him with a bowl of Cheerios, chips and a Sippy cup. In fact, it wasn't till halfway through the morning that Choji thought. 'Well it worked… how about that.' He took about another spoonful of his Cheerios.

Konohamaru had been awake for a while. One of the only thoughts on his mind where 'oh I really hate you sometimes Boss.' It was understandable as Konohamaru was completely immobile in a thick cloth presumably a blanket. Then again, his eyes where heavy and would be for a while. At least I didn't have to deal with how birth felt. Then I would have really killed him. Konohamaru guessed he was roughly three months old or less. 'He sure cut it close though.'

Eslwhere Moegi shot awake and tried in vain to sit up properly before giving it up as impossible she was not that surprised. 'Boss has the weirdest luck' thought moegi as she looked around at her over-decorated nursery. Nothing in it was expensive but her mom tended to collect whatever she thought interesting, or when she was pregnant she was into passively educational. Via how time changes things. Evidence lying with the hunk of petrified wood that was actually gorgeous and a bit over-polished. That's what you get with a R&D parent.

Udon sighed and went back to staring at the mobile he believed it was called, it was a boring dinosaur themed toy with no real purpose now that he knew more about physics then either of his parents ever would. Even if he couldn't really display his knowledge the simply toy was distracting enough to keep him from getting too bored.

-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0

Choji is in no way dumb but it's hard to faze him he is the type of person who can take most things in stride plus he is NOT a morning person.


	2. Crayons

Disclaimer I do not own anything related to Naruto except a pack of trading card. Of those trading cards I do not own the designs, information or characters.

Chapter 1

Naruto looked around the small room he was in. It seemed rather bare and wasn't in the best of condition to say the least; the carpet was threadbare and dirty. The room leaked, and his bed had a spring that stuck out; it could be worse he supposed, and this was true. Although he probably had the worst room in the entire orphanage he at least then was treated with disdain instead of outright hatred. Both were of course a far cry from the respect and adoration he got for defeating Pein/pain and Nagato. Though to be honest the respect was nice the adoration often confused him and he didn't know what to do.

Naruto walked up to the door and looked at the handle. 'I could barely reach it with the help of a stool let alone without one.' he sighed and after standing still for a few seconds he felt a breeze. Naruto looked at the direction it was coming from and saw a window. 'Oh, right I always used to sneak out through the there.' without another thought Naruto climbed on the desk and scrambled out the window. Naruto grinned as he felt the wind in his hair ruffling it lightly.

After Naruto got out of the building he stood up on the roof and yelled "FREEDOM!" The blond toddler launched himself off the roof on a nearby tree limb and climbed down Naruto took another look around. "Well that was easy." he said to himself. Following this statement, he immediately stepped on an incredibly sharp rock. "OWW!" Naruto yelled. 'I just had to say that didn't I." Naruto stomped off, careful to look out for more sharp rocks. 'I really should have grabbed my shoes fist, but I kind of like the feel of the ground beneath my feet.'

Naruto started walking down the street, after a while he was around the middle of the village. 'Huh it's the old Hokage tower.' Naruto thought. Maybe I should pay the old man a friendly visit?' The almost three years old thought about it. "nah." 'Old man Hokage just saw mini me last week if I seem different so soon he will wonder what's up with me.' Naruto continued to walk down the street. 'Then again that's why I have those memories, and he might want to know I can get out of the orphanage since I didn't start doing this till I was five before.'

Naruto tried to remember the way to their old playground and changed directions to where he remembered it being located. He arrived soon after and sat on one of the swings. The park at that moment was completely deserted; Naruto frowned and looked at the sky. 'Hmm it's about nine in the morning so the others probably won't be able to get here for a while, but at least I familiarized myself with everything okay'. Naruto sighed 'oh well I guess it's time to go back to the orphanage.'

After arriving at the orphanage Naruto climbed back in and relocked the window he felt someone watching him and assumed it was probably an ANBU guard, realizing he had escaped during the shift change; but he wasn't absolutely sure.' I guess the old man will find out about my escape soon.' Naruto yawned. 'Man being little does have its advantages but growing sure does tire you out. Naruto stretched and made his way to the bed. 'I wonder if the fur ball got sent back as well?' was his last thought as he fell asleep.

(In the Mindscape)

Naruto woke up to a familiar sight of the dark tunnels which besides the water turned out to be modeled after the ANBU tunnels which he lived part of his first two years in. Unfortunately, he was still in two-year-old form. He still didn't remember anything about living there except other him's memory that he has only been in the orphanage for a few weeks; but Naruto knew that during his first year of life was in those underground rooms. Most of the reason was that at least now he could go to the bathroom on his own. He giggled when he found records of who taught him that. Kakashi sensei took care of him a lot when he was a baby, and Just because he didn't remember it doesn't mean he didn't have any proof that it happened.

There on the right side of his pillow was a gray wolf stuffed animal which Naruto remembered as Inu, 'was it just coincidence that Kakashi's ANBU name was Inu and had the same gray hair as the wolf I think not'. The other worlds Inu plushy had gone missing when Naruto was seven, but that was still years away. The now two-year-old going on 19 Naruto had no problems with anyone seeing him snuggle with it. After all, in this time the rest of the rookie had realized how much of a hugger/cuddle Naruto was in his sleep most of his comrades never wanted to sleep next to him for that reason. Except Choji, sai, or Lee. The former wouldn't notice, Sai always seemed bemused; and the later pushed him away, while still sleeping.

Naruto finally arrived at the seal and came upon a sight that didn't surprise him at all. The Kyuubi was as expected, sleeping. Naruto sighed well this doesn't help at all, better wake him up. "HEY KURAMA GET OFF YOUR LAZY BUT AND LISTEN." Naruto heard a grunt and sniff, surprisingly the Kyuubi had to struggle a bit to wake up. The demon fox looked at his host. "Shut it Naruto your chakra is especially oppressive today."

With that being said the giant chakra mass fell back to sleep easily. Naruto shrugged, he knew that his chakra would be a lot stronger now; because it was the raw form of a child, and still had some of the properties of nature Chakra used for the jutsu. "Well at least I know the Kyuubi is the same one from my time, Naruto didn't have anything else to do here and exited the mindscape to get some real sleep.

Naruto didn't go back to the park that day due to a light rain which meant no one would be there anyway. Naruto having always been childish by nature and had no qualms reverting to that state as he spent his afternoon trying to balance wooden blocks on Inu's head, and vice versa.

-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0

The next day Naruto woke up at probably 5:30 and yawned. 'I guess I'm still on my wartime schedule I won't have anything to do for at least thirty minutes. Naruto thought about what to do while he waited as he felt an ANBU watching him. Naruto smiled he knew that chakra, it was Kakashi sensei's. Naruto paused "I shouldn't be able to feel chakra at this age, Naruto thought about it for a few seconds 'there is a possibility that with my chakra still in its raw state that I would be able to sense it. With that in mind, maybe the only reason most people can't do; it is because they lose it not gain it with age.' his eyes widened this means that me, and the rest of the rookies; have a chance of becoming chakra sensors this time.

Naruto grinned 'That means I have found out how chakra sensing works.' The art of chakra sensing was a large mystery because their birth was always random many sensors came from non-sensor parents some even from civilian families. On the other hand, a kid with both of his parents as sensors had the same chance as being a sensor as any other child. If I can figure out how I could have all of us except maybe Lee could be sensors. Naruto was frowning again 'we don't really need that many sensors though but still.'Naruto started thinking about how to ensure that at least some of the rookies retained the ability. Because of his internal debate he quickly lost track of time. Naruto looked at the clock again; it was now almost 6:15.

Guess I spent more time than I thought thinking about it, Naruto jumped out of bed and ran to his dresser he grabbed a pair of black shorts and his favorite white tee shirt with a red swirl on both sides. He looked at it. His mom Kushina's clan symbol was the Uzumaki swirl, the Jounin and Chunnin vests all had it and it made him happier that he knew where it came from. Shaking himself out of his thoughts he put on some sandals and ran to the door which as with every day was unlocked shortly after 6:00 AM every day. Sure, enough it opened with a gentle push and he ran out and toward the mess hall.

Arriving at the mess hall he grabbed a tray and headed to the table with the various breakfast foods usually the matrons would fill the trays for anyone under 5 because the kids would usually spill or choose only the unhealthy foods. The matrons made him an exception mostly because he was the jinchurriki as well as hard to manage. Naruto grabbed a bowl of cereal a carton of milk and a banana. 'This seems healthy enough' he decided he sat back down. There was only one other kid currently which was rather strange. Most of the time, Naruto ate alone. The kid looked kind of familiar to Naruto.

'Maybe he was one of the civilians that Naruto was among the survivors back home.' before the boy could continue this train of thought however the boy turned to face him. Naruto's eyes almost popped out of his head. The boy had a white Gai on and black hair in a braid but probably the most distinguishing characteristic was they two fuzzy caterpillars where his eyebrows should be. The other boy smiled and gave thumbs up while introducing himself. 'Hello, my name is rock Lee. Naruto smiled 'one down eleven to go.' "Hi Rock Lee, I'm Naruto Uzumaki, can I sit with you." "Sure, you can Naruto."

0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0- 0-0-0-0-0

Naruto and Lee spent the rest of the morning together or at least till the matrons came back and told lee he had to go to preschool. Lee looked at the clock it was in fact thirty minutes till then, but he immediately understood what she meant. She wanted Lee to stay away from Naruto. Lee Shrugged a decided that saying so would probably only get them in trouble. "Bye Naruto-san it has been fun talking to you." Naruto nodded "I liked talking to you too Lee."

The two parted ways, and Naruto put his tray in the stack with the others. He was glad that Lee s gave Tenten the basic story of what happened in a subtle way . Naruto looked down at himself and noticed the spots on his shirt. 'Huh it looks as if I have spilled as much food as I ate.' he thought back. Lee seemed to have similar problems now that he thought about it. 'we seem to have the same motor control as our age suggest.' he shrugged it couldn't really be helped.

Naruto went back to his room and was mildly surprised but what he found. 'Crayons' he thought astounded. 'Who could have...' before he could finish the train of thought he felt a slight difference in Kakashi's signature. Without the ability to sense emotions that got when he used the fox sage cloak it was a lot harder, but it felt like... nervousness. 'So Kakashi gave me the crayons,' Naruto stared at the crayons for a moment. He didn't remember if he ever drew something, but it was years ago.' Naruto noticed that there wasn't any paper. without further ado he muttered just loud enough for the ANBU to hear "got to find paper." he didn't really know where any paper was but he guessed that Kakashi did and so he went on what he knew was an almost pointless search only to return to his room empty-handed sure enough beside the crayons was a small stack of paper.

Naruto grinned as he settled down; he never remembered doing this before, so this was a new experience for him. He grabbed the first one he saw which orange was of course and made a line and stopped Naruto stared at the paper. With true child-like wonder, he began to drag the crayon across the pad again, crossing the line that he made before. For the next few minutes, the little boy experimented with holding the crayon, changing the angle, the pressure. He glanced at the rest of the box sitting on the floor. Quick as a wink, the box was in his lap. Reaching in, he grasped the next crayon which was blue.

He scribbled across the paper with the new color, watching as intersected with the orange, creating a muddled shade of blue. He leaned back to look at his work, the bright blue scribbles popping out of the neon orange background, the shadows of the blurred mixed patches. Naruto stared for a second before he roughly grasped the top sheet and roughly tore it off the pad. Grabbing the red crayon, he set to work by lunch; the little boy was surrounded by a sea of multicolored papers.

Scribbles of all shades and sizes covered the page, Naruto was inordinately proud of his scribbles. He didn't think he had any artistic talent, but he liked it, and that's all that mattered. Besides, he reasoned that he was training his dexterity with his fingers by drawing, and if he happened to be acting like the kid he physically was, all the better. Besides it was fun seeing the colors get so muddled up.'

At dinner Naruto sat with Lee again (much to the matron's ire). Naruto smiled 'who cares Rock Lee is a true friend and since we have actually known each other for years; I know it's impossible to change either of our minds when there made up, and now we agreed that we are going to work together, and when the rookies work together nothing can stop us.' The calendar on the wall broke him out of his thoughts.

It was October the eighth. "Hmm." Lee noticed the sound, "hey Naruto what wrong it's going to be a beautiful youth filled day tomorrow." Naruto smiled "Oh nothing much it just that October tenth is in two days." Lee paused and thought for a few seconds. "Oh, you're talking about the memorial festival." Naruto nodded. "Usually Hokage-jiji took care of me on that day." Lee looked a little somber for a second, but then he grinned. "Then I guess you will have to wait an extra day before you open your present from me."

Naruto had a confused look on his face. "I didn't know you knew when my birthday was." Lee beamed "of course Naruto I remember all my friends' birthdays." Than Lee rubbed the back of his neck obviously embarrassed, "I just never usually keep track of the date and so I usually miss them before I realize it." Naruto nodded " I have the same problem on missions, it just gets so boring it feels like each day just bleeds into the next till you can't remember what day of the month it is.

Naruto repeated the same routine the next day, he ate with Lee and then went to his room; this time he was practicing his writing skills. They were incredibly sloppy and hard to read, but considering he was less than three years old he thought it was okay. This time it wasn't Kakashi who was watching him, and Naruto wasn't sure who it was. 'They probably died before I became a gennin,' thought Naruto. Shortly after dinner Naruto felt a Familiar chakra approach his room, and the figure opened Naruto's door.

"Jiji" cried Naruto as he got up from the floor and raced to hug his earliest role model. The aged Kage chuckled as he leaned over to pat Naruto of the back. "Hello Naruto, how would you like to spend some time away from the orphanage for a few days?" Naruto knew this was mostly to keep him safe as there were a lot of people who would take advantage of the situation. Not that any of them would really hurt him, (not seriously anyway since he had an ANBU guard with him always) but the commotion if he wandered off would be enough distraction for one of Danzo's root agent to make off with the blonde. Naruto put on a wide grinned "Really Jiji that would be awesome!"

Naruto was in the Hokage's office using the crayons Kakashi left to scribble on a piece of paper. Naruto giggled since he was still a kid even with his many years' experience as a ninja, so he just wanted to be a kid for a while. For now, at least the fighting could wait. Sarutobi was as usual doing paperwork Naruto didn't really see the point. When he became Hokage he just delegated it to Sakura or used a clone or two to get rid of it.

Naruto shrugged he couldn't really do anything about it, really it would set off alarms if a two-year-old knew the secret of and A-S ranked kinjustu. Naruto put the crayons back it he boxes and stacked his papers up in a pile. He grabbed a blanket and walked over to the Kage. Without a second thought he grabbed the side of the chair and used it to help him climb into the Kage's lap, he looked down at the papers; that he might not have been allowed to see, if the Hokage knew the toddler in his lap could read just as well as he could.

Hiruzen Sarutobi didn't even glance down when he felt the blonde climb into his lap, it was after all a regular occurrence when the boy was dropped off. Hiruzen always tried to make sure, too spend at least some time with him once a week or so. He adjusted the toddler's weight so that Naruto was on his knee just above eye level with the mahogany desk. Naruto watched as the Kage worked on more of the paperwork.

Surprising to just about everyone in the future Naruto was quite good with paperwork, he had after all learned a basic amount of money management when he was seven in the academy. Besides his poor attendance and the sabotage by his academy teachers, he would have passed with rather high marks. In math at least, Most of this was born out of necessity as he basically took care of himself for most of his childhood. (Including budget management) the Hokage ordered a meal with extra silverware and they had onigiri.

At around 7:41 PM Naruto started yawning and was ready to sleep. He felt himself being carried to the Sarutobi compound. He would likely spend the next 36 hours there under the watch of Sarutobi and Riri (his daughter). Before Naruto succumbed to sleep he thought 'wait does that mean I'll see Konohamaru as a baby,' Naruto mentally snickered as he imagined a chilbi version of the Sandaime Hokage's grandson before falling asleep.

Waking up on October 10 Naruto took a few minutes to remember where he was. 'Oh yeah I'm in the Sarutobi clan compound till around tomorrow morning probably. Naruto climbed out of the guest bed and ran to the bathroom. Finished there Naruto went over to his backpack and pulled out his next pair of clothes. After he finished dressing he ran out toward where he thought the kitchen was. Sure, enough he was right Sarutobi being a Kage had made it a habit to get up early so he could get to the tower and finish the morning rush of paperwork in time to assign missions, which not important most of the time he seemed to enjoy it.

This fit Naruto fine as he also got up early and hated not having company to talk to. Hiruzen Sarutobi was slightly surprised to see Naruto up early. "Hello Naruto, what are you doing up." Naruto grinned "I like to get up early so I and my friend can meet up in the cafeteria before the matrons bring the rest of the kids in." Naruto smiled to himself 'it's not really a lie.' Hiruzen Sarutobi smiled "oh so you made a friend." The boy nodded "his names Lee and were both going to be ninja when we grow up." Hiruzen patted Naruto on his back before getting him a plate of pancakes that the cook of the house made.

Meanwhile Riri stepped into the room holding a small bundle. Naruto looked to his left. "Hey Jiji Whose, that. The Kage chuckled. "I assume you're talking about my grandson Konohamaru since you already met my daughter." Naruto nodded. "can I see him the blonde asked excitedly?" without saying anything Riri smiled, and leaned down and tilted the newborn in his direction. Naruto starred at the babe Konohamaru was awake and staring at him, though by the look in his eye the young babe would be glaring if he had more control of his facial muscles. Naruto laughed in delight, 'hey he sure looks pissed, doesn't he?' In response the baby reached up grabbed Naruto's bright hair and yanked.

-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0 -0-0-

Naruto groaned as he opened his eyes. It was two days after the memorial festival, and his birthday; he had spent two nights at Hiruzen Sarutobi clan house. The reason for doing so was partly the old man wanting someone to give Naruto even a slight semblance a normal childhood by at least giving him a normal birthday. In the previous timeline Naruto had gotten to spend his birthdays with the Hokage till he was about seven.

When he was seven however the civilian council thought he was showing too much favoritism. Sarutobi had conceded, if he was able to insure was not able to be harmed by someone attacking him during that time. The result could be a form of retaliation; what occurred was both unexpected and unfortunate for the kohanaha council, to say the least.

You see though the Hokage trusted all his ANBU, and Jounin he didn't underestimate the stupidity or resourcefulness of anyone else; especially not the stupidity of certain civilians. Don't get him wrong most could all be considered intelligent, if not for the total lack of common sense. In the end Sarutobi took Naruto aside for about an hour a day for a month, the Kage did this to give Naruto a few safety "pointers".

He taught Naruto a few simple evasion techniques that he learned at the academy before the council took over. Therefore, Naruto could often be seemed easily evading chunnins' after a prank; he didn't do it by speed but mostly by deception, (the hiding behind a sheet to look like the fence behind it (explains why Both Naruto and Konohamaru have one.)

This year Naruto got more coloring supplies, these he suspected where from Kakashi. He also received his old toad shaped wallet (Gama-Chan); this he knew was from Jiraiya. Sarutobi gave him some new clothes, and a small bag of candy; Aika didn't know him very well, but she did give him same coupons for free ramen. Sarutobi had brought him back on the eleventh in the evening after lunch. Naruto had still not see Lee again yet nor gotten his present, but he could hardly wait.


	3. Plans in the playground

I do not own anything about Naruto except a pack of trading cards, and even then, I only own those cards not the designs or characters on them.

Chapter2

Naruto woke up on October the 11th and had to take a few moments to remember where he was and why exactly he was there. The Sarutobi compound hadn't had a chance to be rebuilt in the previous timeline. Though at least one Sarutobi had survived the war, and Konohamaru would certainly do his family proud, though Asuma's daughter Mirai wasn't really at an age to really know the significance of her last name being only over a month old and such when they had left.

Naruto missed some of the people he lost while going back, but to leave them all with their grief was such a terrible thing. The one thing more terrible to have lost then their loved ones was to lose their hope. When they had finally won against Madara, Zetsu, and his resurrected minions they didn't celebrate the simply cried. It was not joy but simply relief that it was finally over.

Naruto was dropped off at the orphanage shortly after breakfast and decided to start the day in the mess hall anyway. After all, just because he'd already eaten didn't mean he couldn't still just sit and talk. In many ways it was better, he had things to discuss with his friends, and comrades after all.

Naruto decided that he wanted to talk to lee, about anything that may have happened while he was gone. Naruto dressed in his new outfit, of orange shorts and a white and orange shirt. He stepped into the cafeteria or mess hall to meet a pleasant surprise, Tenten was there. He grinned "hey Lee who's this she looks sharp." It was his way to give anyone watching proof that they just met but he couldn't resist a vague reference to the affinity to weapons.

Naruto caught the smallest hints of an eye roll, as she looked towards him. "Hi, I'm Tenten I'm going to be adopted soon." Which was true she mentioned it a few times that she was adopted a short time after turning four. "I'm Naruto nice to meet you." Speaking lower the three of them subtly discussed what has been happening. Though Lee didn't go to the park but Tenten did she met Ino who assured her that Choji and Shikamaru had arrived safe. Sasuke was fine. Neji was there as well with news of Hinata.

That was confirmation of at least nine of the group which was more than half if the jutsu had malfunction it would have done it at the halfway mark. They should be all there. Relieve with the news Naruto sighed and he felt a huge weight fall from his shoulders. "…they all probably made it back." The jutsu could only after all be done once if they failed again there would be not redo this was a wonderful start though. Before Naruto could leave the table, Lee perked up. "Oh, by the way happy birthday from me and Tenten." The each pulled a tiny box out.

Naruto looked at the packages they were plain and obviously something they found, he smiled and opened the clumsily resealed soap packages there were two practice kunai and five practice shuriken's. Naruto grinned. "we don't have allowance at this time, but we found some that the older students discarded now we can get back in shape skill wise." Tenten stated nervously before Naruto interrupted.

"This is perfect you guys it's just what we need I hope you kept some for yourself." They nodded and noticed others were coming in. Naruto having finished hi glass of water and stood up. See you later guys. 'though I don't think people would like to know a toddler has even practice weapons we do need to start practicing. We need to find a place to start practicing as well as a few excuses for doing so.' Naruto rubbed his chin thoughtfully.

Naruto turned back to Tenten and Lee. "hey guys I think we should head to the park today I want to talk to some of the others if we can find them." They agreed immediately, since it was Saturday; and the park was being consistently supervised by an ANBU or two. They would be fine, and it was loud enough most of the time to ignore a few toddlers talking; The other two finished eating and left soon afterwards.

The park was sandy, and dusty as ever; Naruto immediately headed to the tower to see if he could see anyone, he climbed up the steps that led to the slide. He let the other kids go past as he looked out, He didn't recognize the kids on the swings except maybe a purple haired girl he thinks he went to school with. 'What was her name? Ami? Ameki? Something like that.'

He turned his attention to the merry go round, and saw a small boy playing not on it but near it. That caught his attention, he didn't recognize Shino immediately because so much more of his face was visible but there were still the glasses. The brown hair was as spiky as ever but quite a bit shorter. Shino however didn't look like he intended to move soon so he decided to see if he could spot anyone else.

The slide and sandpit where empty, he was about to step down before he saw two shapes approaching. Naruto almost jumped out of his skin, was that an adult Shikamaru? The face came closer and he relaxed it was just Shikaku. He forgot sometimes how much like his dad Shikamaru was if it weren't for the scars he would still be confused. though older Shikamaru had a few scars of his own; they were however in different places. Naruto saw Tenten coming closer having found Kiba.

Naruto sighed 'well I guess now's as good as time as any.' He saw Lee approach Shino. 'I guess that's taken care of.' and he moved somewhere he thought Shikamaru might see him before going to the sandbox, the others met him there.

They made a few gestures referencing old wounds the would now never gain. After all identities were confirmed, Naruto spoke first. "hi how are you guys doing?" Shikamaru laid down "troublesome." Shino took over. "I am doing as well as can be expected though I must enquire as to how the others are as I've yet to see them." Kiba practically jumped into the conversation. "so yeah Akamaru isn't even weaned yet so he can't be here but what going down?" Naruto explained the situation so far.

"We've seemed to have all, including Konohamaru, made it back from what we know; but we haven't been able to contact Sakura yet, does anyone have any information on her at this point?" Most of the group shook their head. Kiba spoke up, "I saw her at the festival briefly though we didn't talk, I'm pretty sure it's the old Sakura." He finished talking while swirling some sand around his fingers. Naruto tilted his head." Do you know it was her?" Kiba grinned. "Yeah I'm pretty sure when she saw me made a motion with her hand of pulling one half of her face back. I'm pretty that she was trying to reference her old injury."

Naruto nodded and at least one of the others winced, I see that would make sense; Did you signal back so she would know that you also made it back?"" Of course, I did I made two slashing motions across my stomach from the stomach wound Madara inflicted right before he was killed by the rabbit goddess chick." Kiba shrugged. "she was the one that healed it after all." Naruto grinned and smiled. "That's great. The only ones whom we are not entirely sure of are the sand siblings who don't happen to live here."

Naruto decided to get back onto a more important subject, I had hoped we would arrive later, so we could at least have an excuse of reading about something to explain knowledge. Unfortunately, life its seems is still not fair, we have ended up at an age where kids our age should be happy that they don't wet the bed regularly. We aren't supposed to do some of the simplest things people learn. If we start immediately doing things. There will be chaos and, we won't be able to explain it away.

"So, basically, we aren't even supposed to be able to read yet, but I can't stand the thought of waiting around for us to get bigger we need to be progressive, now who here is actually supposed to be able to be learning how to read?" Tenten and Lee responded that they were learning that now in pre-school, they said as they pushed around lumps of sand. The others just shook their heads and answered for the ones who weren't there. Naruto spoke again. "well we each need to find some excuse to explain either how we know or get someone to teach us, and we also need some way of explaining any other training methods; they cannot be personalized."

Naruto interrupted lee as he tried to protest. "I know Iron Fist style is great but only Gai as supposed to know that certain style. Weapon are limited so we need a way to either get more and distribute them or rotate them. We can't use chakra yet, but we can hone everything else. Oh, and before I forget." Naruto explained his theory about sensing chakra. which they discussed for a time. Before they knew it was time for lunch.

Tenten spoke next. "Honestly I'm happy enough that I don't constantly spill when I try to drink from one of the larger drinking glasses. I think we should spend most of this time just figuring out how to use our bodies. We are still toddlers with no real chance of true coordination but if I can help it we will be the most coordinated group of toddlers there is." Naruto laughed but agreed. "we should all be pretty well coordinated by the time we are five or so, that's the age when Kakashi became a gennin. Though I'm pretty sure that we won't be allowed to graduate that fast we should still keep an eye on things." That got a general murmur of agreement before Naruto remembered. "oh and Konohamaru is back too."

Naruto and the others made their goodbyes before departing. They after all couldn't spend all day at the park, though the active childish part of him really wanted to. After all, inheriting his memories meant he had his personality as well. Naruto continues trudging back, being a kid was great but being a jinchurriki still sucked sometimes. Another villager glared as they saw him.

Naruto returned to his room after lunch and decided to do some more coloring, he tried to draw Gama Chan and then he drew Inu. The drawings weren't the best, but you could at least tell what they were he had drawn a few letters before, but he didn't want people to know he knew things he shouldn't. Considering he was in the body of a toddler that was almost everything, so he just drew.

Naruto planned to fix his nonexistent reading problem as soon as possible, since Lee and Tenten were learning maybe he could ask him to pretend to tutor him. He could also as the Hokage when someone could teach him how to read, usually if it's easy to grant Hiruzen will let you try. That ways if you fail you at least learn a valuable lesson, after all these years he was still a teacher at heart. Naruto Laid down that night with one major thought on his mind. 'we actually did it were going to save them. We are going to save everyone and anyone we can. He drifted off to sleep with a soft smile on his face.

0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0

The next day Naruto headed to the mess hall as usual Lee however must have been up doing something last night, because by the time he finally got their breakfast was already halfway over. What caught Naruto's attention however were the few glares Lee received. The other kids were now mentally associating Lee with Naruto, he decides that this might not be a good thing. Lee was an outcast already but the more he became an outcast the harder his life would be. Mostly because the supposed grownups might sabotage either Lee for associating with himself, or Naruto for influencing some of the other children to the dark side.

Naruto mentally snorted 'They think I'm the dark side now, but in a few years, I will be saving your butts; it doesn't matter how smart you are, the more people in a hoard the less brain cells are invited to join.' Naruto stopped to think about that as he made small talk with Lee, and discreetly found out that Lee spent the night before trying to relearn how to juggle. Surprisingly juggling was actually very useful skill, after all it made your hand eye coordination skyrocket; plus, a surprising amount of missions involved dressing as some type of entertainer. Naruto made a mental reminder to learn how to juggle as well that as well. Though by the bruise on Lees head he should probably start with something fairly harmless, maybe a few handkerchiefs or something.

Naruto said his goodbyes to Lee, as Tenten was in her usual spot watching what was going on; she was good at scouting and keeping watch. This was mostly because Tenten liked people watching and trying to predict what people were going to do next. She also probably knew that, being associated with Naruto too much would be bad for her reputation as a good girl; the matron might interfere with her adoption. Though as far as anyone knew Tenten's parents didn't give a darn about what Naruto had in his stomach. The same couldn't be said about the matrons of the orphanage.

Granted they weren't actually bad people on the contrary they loved children but most of them were there when the Kyuubi was manipulated to attack and the orphanage had sustained heavy damage. One of the matrons had died and another crippled. They were all terrified and fear doesn't die easily. In the end Naruto was able to do what he did best, which was to empathize with people in sad situations. Though they tended to avoid him as much as they could they still did their job and took care of him.

Naruto spends the rest of his afternoon watching the academy students, they're not very good to say the least but he must find some way to explain how he seems to know some of these things. After all no matter how much of a prodigy he is going to pretend to be even the prodigies need to get their information of how to do things from somewhere. Naruto sighs in relief as he feels the ANBU, they apparently don't find anything wrong with watching.

0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0

Later that afternoon Naruto decided to play with the building blocks in his room, and tried to place each block on the next with one move it went horribly. They were all crooked, and he was happy enough if he got eight high; without either having to straighten out the blocks, or having them fall over. Naruto giggled this was ridiculous no wonder kids found this so funny. They were probably laughing at themselves. Naruto changed tactics and began making a pyramid maybe then he could actually get it to bet taller than he was though looking at himself taller than him wasn't that much of an accomplishment.

Eventually the toddler tiredness kicked in Naruto frowned as he tried to place the Next block on top of the rather sizeable pyramid of blocks that was shoulder high before sitting down he was not done but he didn't want to continue. Naruto blinked tiredly what was he doing again. Naruto tried to stand up and was surprised by how the world tilted before her felt something grab him. Naruto blinked up looks like it's Kakashi's shift again Naruto stayed awake long enough to feel the blankets of his bed being brought up to his chin before going dead to the world.


	4. fussy mom

I do not own anything about Naruto except a pack of trading cards, and even then, I only own those cards not the designs or characters on them.

Chapter2

Naruto woke up on October the 11th and had to take a few moments to remember where he was and why exactly he was there. The Sarutobi compound hadn't had a chance to be rebuilt in the previous timeline. Though at least one Sarutobi had survived the war, and Konohamaru would certainly do his family proud, though Asuma's daughter Mirai wasn't really at an age to really know the significance of her last name being only over a month old and such when they had left.

Naruto missed some of the people he lost while going back, but to leave them all with their grief was such a terrible thing. The one thing more terrible to have lost then their loved ones was to lose their hope. When they had finally won against Madara, Zetsu, and his resurrected minions they didn't celebrate the simply cried. It was not joy but simply relief that it was finally over.

Naruto was dropped off at the orphanage shortly after breakfast and decided to start the day in the mess hall anyway. After all, just because he'd already eaten didn't mean he couldn't still just sit and talk. In many ways it was better, he had things to discuss with his friends, and comrades after all.

Naruto decided that he wanted to talk to lee, about anything that may have happened while he was gone. Naruto dressed in his new outfit, of orange shorts and a white and orange shirt. He stepped into the cafeteria or mess hall to meet a pleasant surprise, Tenten was there. He grinned "hey Lee who's this she looks sharp." It was his way to give anyone watching proof that they just met but he couldn't resist a vague reference to the affinity to weapons.

Naruto caught the smallest hints of an eye roll, as she looked towards him. "Hi, I'm Tenten I'm going to be adopted soon." Which was true she mentioned it a few times that she was adopted a short time after turning four. "I'm Naruto nice to meet you." Speaking lower the three of them subtly discussed what has been happening. Though Lee didn't go to the park but Tenten did she met Ino who assured her that Choji and Shikamaru had arrived safe. Sasuke was fine. Neji was there as well with news of Hinata.

That was confirmation of at least nine of the group which was more than half if the jutsu had malfunction it would have done it at the halfway mark. They should be all there. Relieve with the news Naruto sighed and he felt a huge weight fall from his shoulders. "…they all probably made it back." The jutsu could only after all be done once if they failed again there would be not redo this was a wonderful start though. Before Naruto could leave the table, Lee perked up. "Oh, by the way happy birthday from me and Tenten." The each pulled a tiny box out.

Naruto looked at the packages they were plain and obviously something they found, he smiled and opened the clumsily resealed soap packages there were two practice kunai and five practice shuriken's. Naruto grinned. "we don't have allowance at this time, but we found some that the older students discarded now we can get back in shape skill wise." Tenten stated nervously before Naruto interrupted.

"This is perfect you guys it's just what we need I hope you kept some for yourself." They nodded and noticed others were coming in. Naruto having finished hi glass of water and stood up. See you later guys. 'though I don't think people would like to know a toddler has even practice weapons we do need to start practicing. We need to find a place to start practicing as well as a few excuses for doing so.' Naruto rubbed his chin thoughtfully.

Naruto turned back to Tenten and Lee. "hey guys I think we should head to the park today I want to talk to some of the others if we can find them." They agreed immediately, since it was Saturday; and the park was being consistently supervised by an ANBU or two. They would be fine, and it was loud enough most of the time to ignore a few toddlers talking; The other two finished eating and left soon afterwards.

The park was sandy, and dusty as ever; Naruto immediately headed to the tower to see if he could see anyone, he climbed up the steps that led to the slide. He let the other kids go past as he looked out, He didn't recognize the kids on the swings except maybe a purple haired girl he thinks he went to school with. 'What was her name? Ami? Ameki? Something like that.'

He turned his attention to the merry go round, and saw a small boy playing not on it but near it. That caught his attention, he didn't recognize Shino immediately because so much more of his face was visible but there were still the glasses. The brown hair was as spiky as ever but quite a bit shorter. Shino however didn't look like he intended to move soon so he decided to see if he could spot anyone else.

The slide and sandpit where empty, he was about to step down before he saw two shapes approaching. Naruto almost jumped out of his skin, was that an adult Shikamaru? The face came closer and he relaxed it was just Shikaku. He forgot sometimes how much like his dad Shikamaru was if it weren't for the scars he would still be confused. though older Shikamaru had a few scars of his own; they were however in different places. Naruto saw Tenten coming closer having found Kiba.

Naruto sighed 'well I guess now's as good as time as any.' He saw Lee approach Shino. 'I guess that's taken care of.' and he moved somewhere he thought Shikamaru might see him before going to the sandbox, the others met him there.

They made a few gestures referencing old wounds the would now never gain. After all identities were confirmed, Naruto spoke first. "hi how are you guys doing?" Shikamaru laid down "troublesome." Shino took over. "I am doing as well as can be expected though I must enquire as to how the others are as I've yet to see them." Kiba practically jumped into the conversation. "so yeah Akamaru isn't even weaned yet so he can't be here but what going down?" Naruto explained the situation so far.

"We've seemed to have all, including Konohamaru, made it back from what we know; but we haven't been able to contact Sakura yet, does anyone have any information on her at this point?" Most of the group shook their head. Kiba spoke up, "I saw her at the festival briefly though we didn't talk, I'm pretty sure it's the old Sakura." He finished talking while swirling some sand around his fingers. Naruto tilted his head." Do you know it was her?" Kiba grinned. "Yeah I'm pretty sure when she saw me made a motion with her hand of pulling one half of her face back. I'm pretty that she was trying to reference her old injury."

Naruto nodded and at least one of the others winced, I see that would make sense; Did you signal back so she would know that you also made it back?"" Of course, I did I made two slashing motions across my stomach from the stomach wound Madara inflicted right before he was killed by the rabbit goddess chick." Kiba shrugged. "she was the one that healed it after all." Naruto grinned and smiled. "That's great. The only ones whom we are not entirely sure of are the sand siblings who don't happen to live here."

Naruto decided to get back onto a more important subject, I had hoped we would arrive later, so we could at least have an excuse of reading about something to explain knowledge. Unfortunately, life its seems is still not fair, we have ended up at an age where kids our age should be happy that they don't wet the bed regularly. We aren't supposed to do some of the simplest things people learn. If we start immediately doing things. There will be chaos and, we won't be able to explain it away.

"So, basically, we aren't even supposed to be able to read yet, but I can't stand the thought of waiting around for us to get bigger we need to be progressive, now who here is actually supposed to be able to be learning how to read?" Tenten and Lee responded that they were learning that now in pre-school, they said as they pushed around lumps of sand. The others just shook their heads and answered for the ones who weren't there. Naruto spoke again. "well we each need to find some excuse to explain either how we know or get someone to teach us, and we also need some way of explaining any other training methods; they cannot be personalized."

Naruto interrupted lee as he tried to protest. "I know Iron Fist style is great but only Gai as supposed to know that certain style. Weapon are limited so we need a way to either get more and distribute them or rotate them. We can't use chakra yet, but we can hone everything else. Oh, and before I forget." Naruto explained his theory about sensing chakra. which they discussed for a time. Before they knew it was time for lunch.

Tenten spoke next. "Honestly I'm happy enough that I don't constantly spill when I try to drink from one of the larger drinking glasses. I think we should spend most of this time just figuring out how to use our bodies. We are still toddlers with no real chance of true coordination but if I can help it we will be the most coordinated group of toddlers there is." Naruto laughed but agreed. "we should all be pretty well coordinated by the time we are five or so, that's the age when Kakashi became a gennin. Though I'm pretty sure that we won't be allowed to graduate that fast we should still keep an eye on things." That got a general murmur of agreement before Naruto remembered. "oh and Konohamaru is back too."

Naruto and the others made their goodbyes before departing. They after all couldn't spend all day at the park, though the active childish part of him really wanted to. After all, inheriting his memories meant he had his personality as well. Naruto continues trudging back, being a kid was great but being a jinchurriki still sucked sometimes. Another villager glared as they saw him.

Naruto returned to his room after lunch and decided to do some more coloring, he tried to draw Gama Chan and then he drew Inu. The drawings weren't the best, but you could at least tell what they were he had drawn a few letters before, but he didn't want people to know he knew things he shouldn't. Considering he was in the body of a toddler that was almost everything, so he just drew.

Naruto planned to fix his nonexistent reading problem as soon as possible, since Lee and Tenten were learning maybe he could ask him to pretend to tutor him. He could also as the Hokage when someone could teach him how to read, usually if it's easy to grant Hiruzen will let you try. That ways if you fail you at least learn a valuable lesson, after all these years he was still a teacher at heart. Naruto Laid down that night with one major thought on his mind. 'we actually did it were going to save them. We are going to save everyone and anyone we can. He drifted off to sleep with a soft smile on his face.

0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0

The next day Naruto headed to the mess hall as usual Lee however must have been up doing something last night, because by the time he finally got their breakfast was already halfway over. What caught Naruto's attention however were the few glares Lee received. The other kids were now mentally associating Lee with Naruto, he decides that this might not be a good thing. Lee was an outcast already but the more he became an outcast the harder his life would be. Mostly because the supposed grownups might sabotage either Lee for associating with himself, or Naruto for influencing some of the other children to the dark side.

Naruto mentally snorted 'They think I'm the dark side now, but in a few years, I will be saving your butts; it doesn't matter how smart you are, the more people in a hoard the less brain cells are invited to join.' Naruto stopped to think about that as he made small talk with Lee, and discreetly found out that Lee spent the night before trying to relearn how to juggle. Surprisingly juggling was actually very useful skill, after all it made your hand eye coordination skyrocket; plus, a surprising amount of missions involved dressing as some type of entertainer. Naruto made a mental reminder to learn how to juggle as well that as well. Though by the bruise on Lees head he should probably start with something fairly harmless, maybe a few handkerchiefs or something.

Naruto said his goodbyes to Lee, as Tenten was in her usual spot watching what was going on; she was good at scouting and keeping watch. This was mostly because Tenten liked people watching and trying to predict what people were going to do next. She also probably knew that, being associated with Naruto too much would be bad for her reputation as a good girl; the matron might interfere with her adoption. Though as far as anyone knew Tenten's parents didn't give a darn about what Naruto had in his stomach. The same couldn't be said about the matrons of the orphanage.

Granted they weren't actually bad people on the contrary they loved children but most of them were there when the Kyuubi was manipulated to attack and the orphanage had sustained heavy damage. One of the matrons had died and another crippled. They were all terrified and fear doesn't die easily. In the end Naruto was able to do what he did best, which was to empathize with people in sad situations. Though they tended to avoid him as much as they could they still did their job and took care of him.

Naruto spends the rest of his afternoon watching the academy students, they're not very good to say the least but he must find some way to explain how he seems to know some of these things. After all no matter how much of a prodigy he is going to pretend to be even the prodigies need to get their information of how to do things from somewhere. Naruto sighs in relief as he feels the ANBU, they apparently don't find anything wrong with watching.

0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0

Later that afternoon Naruto decided to play with the building blocks in his room, and tried to place each block on the next with one move it went horribly. They were all crooked, and he was happy enough if he got eight high; without either having to straighten out the blocks, or having them fall over. Naruto giggled this was ridiculous no wonder kids found this so funny. They were probably laughing at themselves. Naruto changed tactics and began making a pyramid maybe then he could actually get it to bet taller than he was though looking at himself taller than him wasn't that much of an accomplishment.

Eventually the toddler tiredness kicked in Naruto frowned as he tried to place the Next block on top of the rather sizeable pyramid of blocks that was shoulder high before sitting down he was not done but he didn't want to continue. Naruto blinked tiredly what was he doing again. Naruto tried to stand up and was surprised by how the world tilted before her felt something grab him. Naruto blinked up looks like it's Kakashi's shift again Naruto stayed awake long enough to feel the blankets of his bed being brought up to his chin before going dead to the world.


	5. Chapter 5

Gaara was disgruntled, though he expected the enforced distance between him and his elder siblings it was stifling; when Yashamaru found Gaara conversing with his siblings, he was of course upset. His uncle Yashamaru was of little help when asked if he couldn't visit his siblings, could he at least deliver some pictures Gaara could draw for them? His Uncle had yet to get back to him on that, though it would be a crude way of communicating they had spent over seven years of his life with them, after he convinced them he was no longer obsessed with killing everything.

Temari adjusted much faster than Kankouro, being the eldest and naturally protective of Gaara; even if he didn't need it. Then again Kankouro was also a lot more prone to annoying Gaara when they were younger. They needed some reliable mode of contact maybe if he played this just right he could convince his uncle that it would be better for everyone if they let him spent time with his siblings, there was emotional problems. He was already living with chronic depression as a kid, but He could put a different spin on it.

Gaara could always make Yashamaru think he wanted to run away, if he didn't have others children to connect to. It might work, and he could let someone find him after a day or two; they wouldn't actually be able to stop him from leaving the village, unless it was Raza himself. If they kept trying to keep him as far away from his siblings as possible he would do it.

Gaara looked at the teddy bear he was holding, even toddler him didn't have a time when he didn't remember having it near him, and he idly wondered who had originally given it to him; was it his mom or Yashamaru. He hoped it had been his mom, something she had picked out before he was born. He loved his uncle but a little bit of resect was lost when he realized that Yashamaru couldn't stand up and tell Raza when he was being stupid. Worse was if his uncle was stupid enough that traumatizing an already unstable kid was a good way to test Gaara's control.

Still for the longest time the teddy bear was his only companion, Gaara heard Shukaku huff in his mind; the demon didn't count because he was less of a companion and more rabid animal who is constantly taking turns trying to eat him, or keeping others from trying to eat them. Shukaku acknowledged this as true. Shukaku hated any cage even if said cage didn't have a choice in the matter.

The demonic raccoon dog had been extracted before the time fuinjutsu, so he hadn't come back; but Gaara shared enough of his mind, that Shukaku was soon well enough informed that he might have well have been there. It was probably the only convenient part of his seal, it actually amazed him he was as sane as he was dealing with that.

Gaara was glad to be home again in Sunagakure, no offense to Naruto but Kohanahagakure was awful; it was so humid there, and it never changed in that area. Fire country had a daytime temperature almost rivaling Suna some days, but his village was drier; the water they had was in a vast reservoir beneath them. They had more water than any other village was aware of, they had plenty of greenhouses, and paddocks of small livestock. Enough to outlast an invading force for a few months at least.

Kohonaha however was always warm and wet, the dessert cooled quickly after dark; Kohonaha just got worse. The sweat didn't help, in Suna in evaporated; there it just sat and sat until it started itching, Gaara hated being sweaty, it didn't lower your body temperature in Kohonaha by sweating. Gaara had to be honest that he didn't like the trees either, they made him feel too closed in. Gaara enjoyed being able to stand in one spot, and look around for miles; Kohonaha had trees everywhere, some were taller than Shukaku was long.

The village hidden in the leaves had certainly earned its name. There were always going to be too many trees everywhere, and they were always going to be far too green for Gaara's liking. Gaara looked out across the rolling desert, the morning sun was already beginning to create enough heat to star bending the light. There were colors he couldn't name because they were gone before he had a chance to. There were shapes that he knew without a doubt weren't there. Shapes that couldn't really exist, and before he could blink they were gone.

Gaara finished his breakfast and set the bowl besides the sink that his uncle was dutifully washing dishes at. He had missed his uncle now that he was back. 'I should try to get to know my uncle better this time around.' He still had two years before his father started to try assassinating him after all, maybe he could even prevent that. 'How many good ninjas did his father kill by trying to kill me?' Gaara pondered.

0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0

After the dishes were finished Yashamaru decided to go out for a walk with Gaara, and Gaara decided to start phase 1 of his plan. This basically meant asking Yashamaru, why did he have to be born in Suna; what were other places like, what were they like? His uncle brushed it off as childhood curiosity, and saw no reason not to answer his questions. Gaara showed a picture of Kiri he had found in one of the books it was as good place as any to start.

Kiri was even worse than Kohonaha, though for differing reasons. After a while Yashamaru seemed unnerved about how interested he was in a different country. After Yashamaru made it clear how wet it was in Kirigakure Gaara decided to back off. Funny enough when his uncle tried to point out how insane the people in Kiri were. Gaara mentioned that people in Suna though HE was insane, and maybe that meant they would like; and understand him, His uncle almost panicked.

Deciding to back off for now Gaara, decided to talk about something else; the questions that he had never got to ask anyone in his previous life. "What came first the fruit of the color orange?" Yashamaru instantly relaxed and pondered the considerable more difficult though safer question. "I think the color came first because oranges the fruit only grow in certain areas; the color has flowers that are orange almost everywhere even some of our cacti have orange blooms."

Satisfied with the answer and happy his uncle had calmed down Gaara started on the next village, Kumo it took his uncle longer to get upset this time but he was warier this time. "I think a lightning storm would be pretty." When Gaara changed topics again. "How did blind people keep from looking ridiculous when they go and buy clothes?" The pattern went on.

"I wonder if I can control the sand there in the mountains just like the sand here, would it be heavier?" "If you try to fail is it considered success or failure?" "with the shade in fire country I wouldn't have to wear sunscreen anymore." "What would happen if the puppet Pinocchio said my nose will grow now?" Near the end his uncle had a closed off look, he was now worried, He didn't think Gaara would run away but only because he thought Gaara hadn't decided were to go yet.

Near noon his uncle said that they should go back and Gaara responded sullenly before throwing a slightly longing look towards the village gates. Before staring sadly at the people shying away from him, I wish I could talk to my siblings they weren't scared of me last week. Yashamaru grimaced before informing Gaara that Baki would be in charge of him for the rest of the afternoon he had to talk to Raza and would be back just before dark. Gaara Nodded and readied himself for an afternoon, of similar behavior to Baki, he still had questions after all; besides Gaara wouldn't really leave for long, Gaara loved Suna. The thing though is that until he was getting ready to be a ninja They didn't have to know that.

0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0

Elsewhere Temari was talking strategy with her other brother, they decide to make it seem as if they had tried to be brave when Gaara wandered into their play area but were surprised when he wasn't scary. Gaara was just another kid wasn't he, he didn't act like a demon; and they wanted to know if he really was a demon.

Kankouro was never too much of a strategist, but was fairly good at psychology; he insisted that most of the reason Raza though that Shukaku was the one in charge was because he wanted to use that as an excuse to hate him for their mother dying when giving birth to him. He knew it was wrong to blame a child ergo he decides that Gaara wasn't the one there. It was simply the Shukaku in human form, and it was okay to hate the Shukaku, and he said it was bereavement.

Regardless of what it was called Temari thought it was stupid even when Temari was in the old timeline she knew the ways Gaara was treated was wrong, but that didn't mean she had any way to change it. It would be pretty embarrassing to said demon if it endured soiling itself for the better part of three years just to convince people it was a baby. That's not mentioning when she used to sneak in while Uncle Yashamaru was busy and played peekaboo. You can't fake that level of confused laughter.

She also remembers more of their mother than either of her siblings, Kankouro had fuzzy memories of lullabies. Gaara had no chance of ever Knowing her. When her mom was pregnant they had gotten the room across from them ready for the nursery. It wasn't until right after the funeral that the servants moved the baby care supplies to the farthest wing from them.

She knew even after meeting Naruto Gaara wasn't well adjusted but he finally had the chance to try, and he won. Within a year Gaara had done his best to protect the Village. He showed in most cases he was probably one of the only ones that could. They had lost many of their more powerful in their ill-fated attack on Kohonaha, and Baki didn't want it and had realized how much Gaara suddenly did.

No matter how stupid Raza was for blaming everything on Gaara I didn't have anything to do with how they could change things now. Before they could finish their discussion over the puzzle, they heard the door creak open. It was Yashamaru and Raza. Both looked nervous. Raza also seemed uptight and angry, Yashamaru decided to speak first.

"Temari, Kankouro, would you two like to spend the morning tomorrow with your youngest sibling? We will have two chunnins on hand if you decide you want to go home you can have one of them take you back here at any time." They shared a brief glance with each other knowing they were having similar thoughts. 'what they hell did Gaara pull off?' "We would like to spend the day at the park, and I'm not scared of Gaara." (Temari) "yeah When he came by last week he didn't act scary at all." Kankouro said with a smile pretending to be ignorant of why he would ever be considered scary.

After a full lecture of safety precautions be their father, Temari and Kankouro settled down to plan something else. "Kankouro stop wondering how Gaara did it, we can ask when we see him. It's probably the same reason that he became the Kazekage." Temari reprimanded. "you mean by being absurdly strong no one can tell him what to do, and the fact that he is a scary good emotional manipulator when he needs to be?" Temari paused. "I was going to say because he wants them to think they can control him if he has someone to hang out with, but who knows it might just be both." Kankouro nodded Gaara was always smarter and wiser than he looked.

Of course that wasn't really saying much, he never really grew out of the clueless little kid look; until he turned nineteen. Then they started overhearing about how regal he looked, and that was a running joke between the siblings. Gaara started out as the dragon that people were terrified of and somehow became the knight in shining armor. Not that sand ever shined, and that was the only armor Gaara needed.

The plates he wore during the war were, more to keep the loose clothing Gaara preferred close to his skin; that and hide where he kept his stash of cookies he was almost addicted to a secret. "What are we going to do tomorrow Temari?" (Kankouro) "what do you mean, well we can't just spend the whole time speaking, we are kids we should play…. Oh!" Temari rolled her eyes. "what is it Kankouro?" He smiled. "Gaara never really had a chance at childhood then let's give him one, it better than the complicated questions he used to ask us sometimes." Temari agreed easily smiling…" remember when he asked Why abbreviated was a long word?" Kankouro nodded. "what about when...

They continued wondering about Gaara almost always unanswerable questions and how sometime he used them on propose to confuse people with an innocent look on his face for the rest of the night before the went to sleep. Childhood game ideas now running through their heads as they slept.


End file.
